Search results for ""gritstone publishing""

Conservationist Laurence Rose spent two years exploring the cultural roots of our relationship with nature in order to map out its future. From the magnificent white-tailed eagles of Orkney and Mull to the fascinating world of ants and crickets on the southern heaths, he describes his encounters with wildlife in exquisite language and vivid detail. This is a book about the complexity and vulnerability of nature, and the unexpected connections between people and wildlife. While his writing builds on decades of experience as a leading conservationist, Laurence's passion shines from every page. Unflinching in describing the long journey needed to rebuild a mutually-beneficial relationship with nature, ultimately it is a book about optimism and hope.

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This is a love letter to Loughrigg.It's one of the smallest fells in the Lake District, but Loughrigg is small in height only.

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Revised 2nd edition. The Yorkshire Wolds are one of Yorkshire and England's most magical but least known landscapes - dry grassy valleys through undulating chalk hills, unspoiled villages, a dramatic coastline, delightful market towns such as Beverley and Pocklington, and as a focal point, 2017 City of Culture, Kingston upon Hull. This book provides an insight into the rich history and culture of the Wolds, a story shaped by saints, soldier-adventurers, merchants, fisherman, engineers, architects, farmers, landowners, writers, and in most recent times, England's greatest living painter David Hockney, whose work has created a national awareness of the natural beauty and unique landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds. But this is also a practical guide, with detailed information and advice on how to explore the area whether by car, local train and bus, by cycle, horseback or, on foot, with suggestions on how to reach those special places, that will make a visit to the Yorkshire Wolds such a memorable experience. "- a perfect travel companion for those who have decided to visit the Yorkshire Wolds." - Councillor Caroline Fox. Chairman East Riding Council. "a pretty but practical introduction to the Wolds - rolling chalk hills, green valleys, unspoilt towns and villages and spectacular coastline." Debbie Hall, Hull Daily Mail. "often said to be the UK's most under-appreciated landscape, the Yorkshire Wolds has largely been ignored by publishers. Now a major new book redresses the balance." Roger Ratcliffe, Yorkshire Post "The Many photographs taken by Dorian Speakman and the authors' are a delight. The alone whet the appetite for discovery as well as giving pleasure to the armchair explorer," Keith Wadd, West Riding Rambler

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The Peak District's pub heritage is as rich and tasty as the beer that foams from the pumps, and via its inns, taverns and hotels we can trace centuries of social history in one of the most beautiful parts of Britain. This is the story of the packhorse men and lead miners, shepherds and navvies, and the evolution of the traditional Peak District pub from humble alehouse to the present day. We learn about haunted pubs, themed pubs, estate pubs and temperance pubs, as well as one or two pubs which are not what they seem at all. There's an explanation of pub names and signs, revealing loyalties to crown, church and squire; an introduction to a few pub heroes and villains, rituals and merry-making; plus a slightly baffled look at some odd pub pastimes involving toes, chickens and a hole in a wall. Along the way we raise a glass to some of the many local pubs that have been consigned to the great brewery wagon in the sky, and see how others are adapting to the challenges of today - from changing social patterns and lifestyles through to a global pandemic - with small-scale brewing and pub shops, micropubs and community ownership.

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This is an important book about one of England's most fascinating regions - Yorkshire. Colin Speakman explores Yorkshire's origin as an independent Anglo-Viking Kingdom whose capital was York, which for many centuries was England's second city. Yorkshire was divided into not one but three ancient counties or shires, East, North and West Riding, which survived until 1974. The book celebrates the extraordinary variety of landscapes and rich cultural heritage through what is described as the nine great 'cultural landscapes' that make Yorkshire one of the most distinctive and fascinating regions of England. As an environmentalist, Speakman's interest lies primarily in the landscapes of the Dales, Moors, Wolds and South Pennines, but this is blended with an understanding of the cultural and industrial forces that shaped the landscapes we see today. But this ground-breaking book also looks ahead to a new post Brexit, post pandemic world in which the environment takes centre stage, with the emergence of new greener technologies that promise new economic prosperity for the people of the region, making a powerful case for English Devolution to allow Yorkshire to fulfil its potential within both Britain and Europe.

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Joan Arkle, a tireless climate change activist, is passionate about her beliefs. She has taken her campervan to the Lake District, to be able to live among the hills she loves. Here there is ample scope for her trade as a wildlife photographer. Here, too, there is opportunity to make a difference by campaigning against global warming. But her time in Cumbria proves challenging. Somehow her activities attract hostility. Increasingly she makes enemies. And then, one evening on a quiet by-road, her campervan is firebombed. Who is responsible? And who precisely is Joan Arkle? These are the questions which both DI Chrissy Chambers of the Cumbrian Police and Nick Potterton, once a successful London journalist but now a struggling local freelance, find themselves trying to answer. Andrew Bibby's latest crime mystery is set among the beauty of the mountains and lakes of England's most popular National Park.

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The staff at Greensleeves residential park are undertaking the Three Peaks Challenge for charity. As they begin the walk up Scafell Pike in the Lake District their boss disappears. Next day his half-naked body is found in a moorland bog, miles off route.

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The free, weekly, 5k timed running and walking events known as parkrun are now a global phenomenon, operating in 23 countries worldwide. Within the community of participants are enthusiasts who have created a parkrun sub-culture of challenges, loved especially by those who can no longer improve on their personal best time week by week. One such is the Alphabet Challenge, to take part in parkruns which begin with every letter of the alphabet, just 25 letters in this instance, as there is yet no parkrun anywhere in the world beginning with X. Eileen Jones, the author of 'How parkrun changed our lives' (Gritstone 2021) was close to completing her own alphabet when parkrun was forced to stop because of the pandemic. Eventually, at long last, she made it to Zuiderpark parkrun in The Netherlands, only then to discover obsessives who were close to finishing their second, third, even seventh alphabets. This is her story, a personal memoir of a journey from Alexandra Palace in North London to The Hague, which often involved musical theatre, and sometimes a little drama along the way. It's the story of the people she met, the powerfully-cohesive force of the parkrun community, the dedicated, the eccentric, the enthusiastic runners, joggers, walkers and volunteers whom she calls her parkrun family. Each chapter leads with one featured parkrun, and then has details of the other events beginning with that letter that Eileen has completed, 135 different ones (out of a tally of more than 325 in all, many at her home parkrun, Fell Foot, in the Lake District). There are tales of record-breaking achievements beyond the confines of the stop-watch: the man who's done more parkruns than anyone else in the world, even taking part on crutches when injured; the popular and cheerful woman who's on her way to 100 different events, all of them by public transport; the writer whose children's stories are set at a parkrun beginning with D; and a friend who shared the author's Z celebrations after doing her own challenge in strict alphabetical order. If you've done a parkrun, you'll love this book. If you've not, this is a story that will surely inspire you to sign up and take part.

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The years before the First World War saw the development of a widespread housing movement in Britain which delivered homes at affordable rents through co-operative and community endeavour. From Cornwall to central Scotland, Suffolk to South Wales, working-class tenants moved into their newly constructed homes and began to create communities. As Birmingham housing reformer John Nettlefold put it in 1914, tenants might not be able to own their individual houses but they could nevertheless say that, collectively, ‘these houses are ours’. Many of the estates adopted ‘garden village’ principles as a radical alternative to conventional urban streets of high-density housing. Community meeting rooms, allotments, sports facilities and children’s playgrounds were frequently included. As Andrew Bibby points out in his richly researched book, this almost forgotten history mirrors uncannily current interest in bottom-up community-led efforts to meet housing need. As we face a housing crisis once again in Britain, and with council housing no longer the default means of providing affordable homes, the alternative models for social housing developed more than a century ago offer much that is relevant to us today

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John Phillips (1800-74) was a geologist, cartographer, palaeontologist and passionate devotee of the Yorkshire landscape. This detailed biography of Phillips retraces his footsteps through Dales, Moor and Coast and suggests how Phillips was an inspirational force behind Britain's National Park and outdoor movement.

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For Nick Potterton, the once high-flying London journalist who has moved to the Cumbrian countryside, Davie Peters' death should be just another story to cover. But the longer he investigates, the more disturbing questions he has to answer.

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This wonderful book, with full colour photographs, celebrates the beauty of this area of England but also does very much more. Thoughtful, well-informed, sometimes provocative, Andrew Bibby goes beyond the superficial to reveal a Middle England which is considerably more complex than many might imagine.

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Guidebook to walking the whole of the England Coast Path from the River Exe to the River Severn, covering the coastlines of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Avon.

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